Wedding decorations throughout the Fong residence torment Little Flower with reminders of her lost betrothal, but she forces herself to focus on helping Linjing. With 13 days until departure, she learns to create a married woman’s hairstyle alongside Cerise, innovating a braided bun using chopsticks to compensate for her missing fingers. Aa Noeng gives Linjing a gold phoenix comb symbolizing first-wife status. Little Flower recalls Second Aa Noeng’s recent interest in copying Aa Noeng’s signature hairstyle and recognizes it as suspicious.

With seven days remaining, Little Flower attends a gathering where Linjing’s married cousins share tales of demanding mothers-in-law and difficult marital duties. At the well, a servant named Little Grass bluntly points out their different prospects: Linjing will become a matriarch, making Little Flower a future housekeeper, while Little Grass will remain low-ranked forever. Despite the girl’s rudeness, Little Flower acknowledges the truth in her words.

Disturbed by her cousins’ accounts of marriage, Linjing walks to the lake and wades in, wishing she could remain unmarried. She visits Aa De and asks if she can stay a maiden. He dismisses her fears as natural modesty, insists marriage is the best path, and maintains that Lady Li cannot mistreat her—that she must submit to her husband’s progressive views. He reminds Linjing of her future as an ambassador’s wife. Though still anxious, Linjing asks if he will protect her should problems arise. Aa De promises she will “always have a protector in [him]” (192).

Spring Rain discovers a hidden letter in Second Aa Noeng’s cosmetics box. Little Flower can decipher only basic characters and a reference to Lady Fong, but the note’s concealment suggests something sinister. That night, Little Flower brings the letter to Lady Fong, who appears resigned rather than shocked by the note’s contents. She burns the letter and orders Little Flower and Spring Rain to stay silent, especially from Linjing, assuring them she will handle the situation privately. Before dismissing Little Flower, Lady Fong describes Linjing as fragile and extracts a promise that Little Flower will be a loyal and kind ally to her, as Cerise has been to her. Though Lady Fong insists all will be well, Little Flower senses danger beneath her forced composure.

One day before departure, Spring Rain urgently summons Linjing to Aa De’s quarters, where she finds Aa De tense, Second Aa Noeng agitated, and Aa Noeng disheveled and slumped. Aa De performs a blood ceremony, mixing his blood with each of his wives’ children in turn. When Linjing’s blood is tested, it does not mix with his. Consumed by rage and shame, Aa De overturns the table. Linjing understands the ceremony tested her paternity.

That evening, Lady Fong privately admits to Linjing that she had an affair years ago, fearing Master Fong would divorce her for her infertility—Linjing is the child of that liaison. A resentful Peony hired an investigator who found a witness to the liaison, using the secret as leverage to keep her son Fei. Lady Fong had hoped Linjing would be safely married before the revelation. She tucks Linjing into bed and promises to fix everything.

Peony wakes Linjing, now wearing Lady Fong’s chatelaine as the new first wife. She reveals that Lady Fong is dead. The guests have been told Linjing and her mother have smallpox, the wedding is canceled, and the Li family will be told Linjing died. When Linjing confronts her about endangering Aa De’s career, Peony explodes, declaring she would rather smother Fei than give him up to Lady Fong.

Guards escort Linjing to her mother’s chambers, where Aunt Sapphire waits beside Lady Fong’s body; Lady Fong took hemlock four hours earlier. Linjing tries desperately to revive her but fails. Aunt Sapphire explains that she knew the secret from the beginning and helped procure the poison, believing death was the only honorable path. Aa De has discharged his duty and refuses to see Linjing. However, using her death as leverage, Lady Fong secured Linjing’s placement at the Celibate Sisterhood rather than a remote nunnery. Aunt Sapphire gives Linjing a letter from her mother urging her to accept her fate and find freedom at the sisterhood.

While Linjing and Little Flower prepare Lady Fong’s body for burial, Cerise is overcome with grief. She cuts her hair close to the scalp, blaming herself for instigating the original deception that led to Lady Fong’s exposure and death. Though Aunt Sapphire invites her to join the sisterhood, Cerise insists on entering a nunnery to atone, declaring Lady Fong was not just her mistress but her truehearted friend. Little Flower reflects that she and Linjing do not share the same bond.

Aunt Sapphire persuades Maa Maa to hire nuns who perform a seven-day soul-exoneration ritual for the late Lady Fong, and on the fourth day her coffin is taken for burial. Over their final evening meal, Aunt Sapphire tells Little Flower and Linjing that she joined the sisterhood after she was accused of being a cursed spirit following her fiancé’s death. She describes the hard work of silk reeling that she and the sisters perform, but emphasizes the freedom it brings. Though she contributed enough wealth to avoid labor herself, Linjing will need to work. Linjing assumes Little Flower will remain her servant and help with her share. Seeing her mistress’s fragile state, Little Flower hesitates to correct this assumption.